Yale Ready to Start the 2009-10 Season

Bailey Carroll. (photo by Sam Rubin '95, Yale Sports Publicity)

Dec 02, 2009

Bulldogs
Look to Freshmen for New Talent

NEW
HAVEN, Conn. – The Yale women’s track and
field team is gearing up for the 2009-10 season, and the
Bulldogs’ first meet will be the Lidlifter Invitational on
Dec. 5, hosted at Yale’s own Coxe Cage. The distance runners
will be taking a short break now that cross country championships
are all over, but for everyone else the year is just beginning.

The indoor season
will include three home meets, which is very exciting for the
Bulldogs and for their fans: first the Lidlifter, then the College
Invitational Jan. 9, which will be the first meet after winter
break. The Giegengack Invitational, Feb. 5 and 6, is the biggest
meet, as Yale will host more than 15 teams over two days.
Heptagonal Championships will be Feb. 27 and 28 at Dartmouth. The
ECAC Championships will be at the Reggie Lewis Center in Boston
Mar. 6 and 7, and runners who qualify will end the indoor season by
compete in the NCAA Championships in Fayetteville, Ark., Mar. 12
and 13.

The Bulldogs will
compete at the William and Mary Spring Break Invitational as their
first foray onto an outdoor track, followed by the Princeton
Invitational Apr. 2 and 3. Yale will return to Princeton for the
annual Yale-Penn-Princeton meet on Apr. 10. The Bulldogs will
travel to compete at the fabled Penn Relays Apr. 22-24, and host
two outdoor meets on either side of that: a dual meet with Harvard
on Apr. 17 and the annual Springtime Invitational Apr. 25. The
outdoor season will conclude with a series of championships,
including the Heptagonal Championships on May 8-9 at Princeton, the
ECAC Championships May 14-16 at Princeton and then NCAA Regionals
May 28-29 in Greensboro, N.C.

The Yale team
looks promising heading into the long season, and the Bulldogs are
optimistic about what they can achieve.

In addition to
relying on the strength of their experienced upperclassmen, Mark
Young ’68, the Mark T. Young ’68 Director of Cross
Country and Track and Field, said, “We’re really
looking for an infusion of talent from the freshman class.”

Sprints
and Hurdles

Yale’s
sprinters have fresh legs and will be excited to explode onto the
scene at the beginning of the season. Sophomore Alexa Monti should
do very well in the short sprints. Last year she finished ninth in
the 60-meter dash at the Heptagonal Championships, just barely
missing the chance to compete in the finals. She is on Yale’s
top-ten all-time list for the 200-meter dash for her 26.00 finish.
She also finished seventh in the 100-meter dash at the outdoor
Heptagonal Championships in the spring, and made Yale’s top
ten all-time list with a 12.22 finish earlier in the season. Fellow
sophomore Marieme Mbaye is on Yale’s top-ten all-time list
for her 12.22 finish in the 100-meter dash.

Freshmen to look
out for include Adele Jackson-Gibson, who has a high school best of
11.8 in the 100-meter dash, and 25.2 in the 200-meter dash, which
would place her among Yale’s best times. Jackson-Gibson
played soccer for Yale this fall.

In the longer
sprints, senior Claudia Duncan is the outstanding leader of the
pack, after her amazing indoor season last year, when she kept
breaking and re-setting the school record in the 500-meter dash.
She eventually reached 1:13.31 on the second day of ECAC
Championships for fourth place, with the fastest time in the Ivy
League. Outdoors, she finished third in the 400-meter dash at
Heptagonals with a time of 55.49 to reset the school record.

Duncan will have
several people joining her in the 400-meter dash, and Yale should
have a good pool to draw from for the 4x400-meter relay, including
captain Faith Briggs, who should be coming back into this season
with strong times.

Yale might miss
last year’s captain, Jennifer Lin ’09, in the hurdles,
but freshmen Jenna Poggi and Dakota McCoy will step up to fill her
shoes. Poggi will be a force to be reckoned with in the short
hurdling events; she was the indoor high school New England
55-meter hurdles champion last year, and was third in short
sprints. McCoy will be stepping up for the longer hurdles.

"Initially we were really looking at Jenna as a
pole vaulter, but after she won the New England Championship in the
55-meter hurdles and was third in the 55-meter dash we became aware
of her hurdling and sprinting ability. We'll definitely be using
her in a variety of events," said Coach Young.

Middle
Distance and Distance

Yale’s
middle-distance team will be lead by All-American junior Kate
Grace, who has quite a string of awards to her name. Indoors she is
the holder of the school record in the 800-meter run: she ran
2:04.72 at the NCAA Championships last March, where she scored
eighth place. She is also on Yale’s all-time top-ten list in
the 1,000-meter run and the one mile run. She was the Ivy League
Champion in the 800-meter run both indoors and outdoors for All-Ivy
recognition. She made it to the semifinal round at the outdoor NCAA
Championships in Arkansas in May.

Grace will not be
Yale’s only middle distance runner; other people to look out
for are senior captain Stephany Reaves and freshmen Caitlin Hudson,
Victoria Flannery and Annalies Gamble.

Coach Young said
of Annalies Gamble: “She is really more of a short-middle
distance runner than a long distance runner; she was second at New
Englands last year in the 600-meter run. We don’t run 600
meters often in league competition, but she should be good in
either the 400- or 800-meter relays.”

For distance
events, the Bulldogs will look to runners such as senior Stephanie
Pearl and sophomore Anne Lovelace, as well as sophomore Madeline
Adams and senior Alexandra Cadicamo.

According to
Coach Young, Lovelace “had a really good start to the
steeplechase outdoors last year. Indoor she’ll mostly run 3k.
Stephanie Pearl has run under 10:00 in the 3k before, so she will
be running too. I’m also excited to have Madeline Adams back
after being injured. She will probably compete in the mile.”

Freshmen who have
stood out during the cross country season include Elizabeth Marvin
and Nihal Kayali, who will probably compete in the mile run on the
track.

Relays

Yale had some
great success last season in the relays, and the Bulldogs hope to
continue that. Last year Grace anchored the 4x800-meter relay team
that won the Ivy League Championships. Other people who might join
her this year include Reaves, Gamble, and Hudson.

The pool to draw
from for Yale’s 4x400-meter relay team will most likely
include Duncan, sophomore Gabriella Kelly, captain Briggs, Gamble
and Grace.

Outdoors, the
4x100 meter relay should also be a strong event for the Bulldogs
with contributions from Monti, Mbaye, Jackson-Gibson and others.

Jumps

The
Bulldogs’ jumpers include junior Emily Standish, who tied for
seventh in the high jump at Heptagonals in the spring. She is on
Yale’s indoor all-time top-ten list for her
5’5.00” high jump, and is also on the outdoor all-time
list for the high jump (5’5.75”) and the triple jump.
Junior Eve King is another strong jumper, who has made her mark in
the high jump, the heptathlon and the pentathlon, making the
all-time top-ten list in all three events. Freshman Jackson-Gibson
will also be competing in the long jump for Yale; her high school
best in the event was 18’10.

Senior Bailey
Carroll is Yale’s veteran pole vaulter, making Yale’s
all-time top-ten list both indoor (10’10”) and outdoor
(10’8”). Junior Eva Uribe is Yale’s other
upperclassman pole vaulter. She and Carroll be joined this year by
freshman Poggi, who vaulted 12’0” at the National
Scholastic Indoor Championships.

Throws

Junior Stephanie
Scaramella will lead the Bulldog throwing team. She is on
Yale’s all-time indoor top-ten list for both the shotput
(42’1.25”) and the weight throw (47’9.25”),
and is on the all-time outdoor top-ten list for her
138’1” performance in the hammer throw. Junior Rachel
Kuschner is Yale’s other steady thrower, with an all-time
performance in the discus of 131’0”.

According the
Coach Young, throwing coach Anna Mahon “thinks that Stephanie
and Rachel are making big progress from last year to this
year.”

They will be
joined by freshmen Emily Anderberg and Antonia Renker, who should
be valuable additions to Yale’s throwing squad.

The Lidlifter
Invitational will be hosted by Yale on Dec. 5 at Coxe Cage. More
information can be found here.